What Our School Learned From Teacher Walk Through

At the 2015 Powerful Learning Conference our leadership team was introduced to the concept of teacher walk through by the Excelsior Springs Middle School team. Over the course of the next year, our six core teachers completed fifty peer observations. The observations provided great data on the learning and teaching that was taking place in our school. More importantly the process helped create a more collegial atmosphere. 

While our staff is still learning how to best leverage the value of teachers observing each other, there are several reasons why the practice has been worth the time.

Promotes Teamwork
We had to come together as a staff to implement peer observation. Classes were covered by an administrator who still missed teaching, so teachers could visit classrooms without giving up plan time. Teachers took on a bit of a different role and provided non-threatening feedback to each other.

Provides Opportunities for Informal Coaching
Because teachers were able to see students in different settings and see the talents of their peers, additional fuel was available for conversations at lunch, staff meetings, and PLC meetings.

Promotes A Growth Mindset
Our leadership team set a goal for the number of peer observations, which helped us gravitate to towards a culture that was focused more on specific and measurable outcomes. Also, as we became more comfortable with the process we tweaked our form. In PLC teams we studied how to use compare and contrast structures to promote critical thinking skills. In our PBIS work we studied the importance of positive feedback. Two additional questions were added to our walk through form to assess the level of implementation of staff learning in classrooms.

Provides Valuable Data
Our staff now has a better picture of what teaching and learning looks like throughout the building. We have data to tell us how varied the "learning diet" is for our students. We know how often they are being asked to complete various tasks. We know the answers to the following questions:
What is the teacher doing?
What are the students doing?
What is the task?
How many positive comments are being made?
How often are students asked to compare and contrast?

Our Process:
-After the conference the leadership team created the form.
-Shortly after walk throughs began.
-Walk throughs were not scheduled but occurred irregularly as the flow of school life permitted; however, goals for the number of walk throughs were set.
-Walk throughs were conducted the principal, covered a teachers' class. The teacher using an i pad filled in a google form. Sometimes the teachers visited several classrooms. Sometimes the teacher stayed for a longer period of time in one room.
-The google form automatically populated a spreadsheet and created charts summarizing the data.